A LAMB IN WOLVES CLOTHING

I have been into paintball since 1989 and over the years I have been apart of some really great historical paintball moments. I witnessed pump guns go from 12 gram CO2 and ten round tubes to constant air and full size loaders to being modified into semi-auto guns which lead to the actual production of semi auto guns. I saw loaders go from gravity feed to home made motorized self feeding loaders and then into actual production loaders by ViewLoader. I saw masks go from shop goggles to the first JT protective half masks to full face protection. I watched and was apart of the EPIC battle for the title of the best gun in paintball, between WGP's Autococker and AGD's Automag, which gave birth to some of paintballs greatest airsmiths/tech who went on to create some of the greatest products paintball has ever seen. I was working in a paintball store in California when the first Spyder debuted. I saw the dawn of the electronic gun age with the Angel. Hell I owned one of the first Angles to ever make it's way to the United states. I was apart of the movement when paintball came out of the woods and stepped onto the first HyperBall fields. I watched as fields became inflatable when Sup Air made fields where the bunkers were inflated and connected to each other by tubes. I played the last ten man game ever played by the NPPL/PSP with the SC Iromen and I won the World Championship title that same year with them. I watched as two leagues became separate and started their rivalry. I played the very first Xball game and thought I was going to die from exhaustion. I was apart of the team (Miami Effect/Infamous) that broke the rules and the contracts and walked away from the NXL to play in the NPPL. That single act broke the divide between the two leagues long enough to allow the NXL teams to be able to play both leagues and compete against the other pro teams again like it had been in the past. Ive worked in stores, at fields, at manufactures and distributors. I owned my own paintball store for ten years. I had my own line of products out for eight. I played pro for six. I have came up with and contributed to some of the products that helped make the industry what it is today, like the present day weight belt style harness, the first bolt redesign of the original Matrix to what became the now DM series, the "screw apart" two piece barrels as well as many more products. I am fortunate enough to be able to call people like Rich Telford, Chris Lasoya, Matty Marshal, Davey Willamson, Adam Johnson, Billy Wing, Yosh Rau, Andy Kopcok, Jon Richardson, Travis Lemanski, Mike Paxson, Ron Kilbourne, Josh Davey, Zack Long, and many others, not only past teammates, but friends.


I have witnessed some of the greatest things in the history of paintball, but I have also witnessed some of the shadiest, back stabbing, two faced moves you could ever imagine. I have a lot of dirt on a lot of people and I have always, for the most part, kept my mouth shut. But there comes a time when enough is enough and people need to know what is going on not only behind their backs, but for the most part, right in front of their face. I have always been a loyal and honest person. Other than when I left the BushWackers (who were amatuer at the time) to play with the pro team, SC Ironmen, I never left ANY of my teams for better offers, even when I wouldn't have been looked down upon for doing so. I always stuck it out through the good and the bad and trust me, there were some SERIOUSLY bad times. I believed in the concept that everything happens for a reason and that people are rewarded for their good acts and punished for their bad. While that may be a novel concept in the real world, it does not apply in the paintball industry. It seems that in paintball, the good die young and the bad....well lets just say the bad seem to make out pretty damn well. I am somewhat guilty of being apart of a lot of the bad that has happened in this industry simply due to the fact that I have known about it and I didn't say anything or try to change it, even though I was not reaping any benefits by doing so. I just thought it was better to go with the flow and not cause any waves for myself, my teams, or my paintball related businesses. Now that I'm not involved in the paintball industry anymore, I have no loyalties to anyone but myself and the players left behind in the shit storm that is modern paintball.

Many people have come and gone throughout the history of this sport and I can't honestly think of one of them that made a significant long term change for the better, something that continues to this day positively. People have tried, but nothing has stuck. Now if your thinking about people who made an industry changing product that positively changed the way the game is played and the way things are bought and sold, then your not talking about what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about a revolutionary product. I'm talking about why paintball isn't really growing and why it hasn't been received well by the public. The same public in which every single one of us came from. Why have other extreme sports like skateboarding, bmx, snowboarding, motocross, and MMA to name a few, had such immense success in a relative short amount of time? Paintball has been around for about as long as most of those sports and longer than others, yet those sports have all gained greater public acceptance, status, growth and financial stability over paintball. All we get to hold onto, is a couple years worth of having the numbers show we were growing faster than other sports, but where did that fast unsustained growth actually get us in the big scheme of things.

We are still a self sustained industry with very little true outside interest or help in the form of sponsor dollars. Why is that? Is it as simple as just not having the right industry infrastructure, the proper game format, or media outlets? If so, who's fault is that and why isn't it being fixed? Why have we not really done as well as those other sports in the over 20 years that we have been around? Why after 20 years are the same main companies, for the most part, still the ones that "control" the industry? Is there a correlation there? Why haven't more outside companies come into this, "near" billion dollar industry? Why isn't paintball on TV because of its own viewer strength and not because its being paid for by the industry? I mean, if every paintball player in the U.S. tuned into a show, those numbers alone would keep a show aired. Why don't players support the shows on TV? Why do we waste money playing paintball in the parking lots of football stadiums pretending that its making a difference in the eyes of the public and drawing in outside interest? Why are there two leagues spending so much time and money fighting each other in a battle to be the premiere league that the world will recognize as such when paintball goes mainstream, when there is so much ground work still left to be done before we even get there? Why is the ENTIRE referee organization completely unorganized and inconsistent? Why aren't more than a hand full of the best players in the world recognized and promoted for all the hard work they have put in and continue to everyday? Why cant you look up your favorite pro player and find out his game statistics and see for yourself that he is seen as a great player because of the numbers he puts up, not because he has a cool catch phrase or sweet headband fashion and is good at getting himself in front of every camera that it clicks off a shot? Why is being a total dick to other people on the field, cool and becomi ng the norm? Why is cheating considered "just part of the game"? Why do manufactures and distributors help open and then sell products to two rival stores, less than 5 miles apart from each other? Why do dealers slash their prices and devalue products because their stores are slow due to their own incompetence.....and why does the industry allow that?

These and many more, are all questions that not only need to be addressed, but that I believe I truly have SOME answers to. I know I don't have all the answers and I don't pretend to, but I believe I have some, and I welcome ANYONE to add to them or even correct mine. That is the type of thinking that has been lost in this industry. There is too much inner fighting and little to no cooperation. Everyone thinks they have the only answer. People aren't willing to swallow their pride. If they would stop fighting each other over all the little scraps that paintball has become and started working together, then they would all have a much bigger piece of a much bigger pie.

Brandon Lambertson

THIS is FUN!!!! But I should not laugh..

Since i have been doing this... well, as long as i can remember, the story telling is a lot more unique knowing that it may never be on the pages of a magazine or a prestigious internet website. Hangin out this past weekend with MMA industry folk and attending x-treme sports seminars... i have begun to realize when the panel brings up moto-x, skateboarding, bla bla bla then MMA, i have begun to realize that paintball was never and is never part of what these people as the general anti-established-felt testosterone, anti corporate industry. Hmmm, I thought, why is that? Did we believe to ourselves in our own world we were kings of something? Did we all forget to be out of the box and produce the media attention that made the X-games industry survive?? I remember talking to Adam Gardner and his mission to put XBall on TV and made some great success and advancements in the forward progress of paintball. He tells me there quirks of making it better however, he invited everyone to participate and put there teams and industry brands together so it was worthwhile. Through it all, no one backed the brothers and show still went on which made to look like they were monopolizing the TV and sport. People simply did not want to involve themselves because if it failed, they want to point some fingers. Unity, like the xgames with their sanctioning committees and industry committees have involved everybody to get a grip on the future of their sport build strategic foundations with group foundations to help the awareness of the industry to the rash public and its own media. College paintball is sick!! That is what paintball should look like and we all should support it.Rock music was said to never survive, but here it is. Skateboarding in not a sport in fact its still called a crime in some cities, but here they are, a sport, an X-treme spectacle, on fuckin TV. Remember that this billion dollar industry makes shirts, shorts, shoes, and a damn board that has not been but wood, bearings and wheels. After all that, they pay their dues to promote the sport. What have we done?? Kill the industry, Slash prices to kill stores, false advertising and promote false agendas. Law suits to monopolize and or reduce the plan of another manufacturer. Provide no sanctioning guidelines and yearly meetings for all manufactures to provide goals.

Infamous beating the Russians (5 tired vs 15 fresh comrades) should have been glorified as well as Rashad Evans putting the beatdown on Chuck Liddel

Later i got some bad and good news about our paintball but remind you that once read we all can laugh and be judgmental but at the end... Lets make it better. If I name names like Todd Martinez or Keely Watson before news gets out I really dont know what might happen.. I'm just a reporter with rights that involve the truth. Seek the truth, dont click and paste what is told you to be the truth.

WHY WE DO....

Alright alright alright.. so i here the biggest, best, brightest mag has fallen or at least gotten a lot smaller as said on our biggest forum of paintball "Pbnation." So after hard thinking and working with friends and shit, I decided to produce a blog related to the real news. What paintball needs is real news and with legitimacy. Our ESPN of sports commentating and related paintball news have fallen!! 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation fucks must know that this is ultimate!! As of right now anyone who has not been playing or been in the industry for at least 15 years I don't necessarily give a fuck because what you don't understand is the our beloved history and story telling is vastly disappearing!!
Rock Cagnoni!!!!! Are you fucking kidding me!!!! The Angel wings and 50% of all your tatts on your Italian body is built around the WDP camp!!! Shit I understand that money is involved for you to be involve with Dye and Proto but shit!!! You my friend have been a JT WDP REDS supporter for years and I will not let our past be the forgotten. The kids these days think to re manufacture you now makes you a follower of one. Your past is where its taking you in the future. Your past shaped what paintball is today. I feel the strain of how the monsters of our industry has to market but lets be real. I don't know who the new Jt dude is doing the marketing but please pick up the now super skinnie ass apg and remind yourself how we thought this mag was a bible of the sport from advertising, stories and information. Jt brings back old shit!! The pics in their add was sick!!!. Every one from old Image with Travis and the Twins, to Hunter Bob Long and his Captain Morgans pose. To the inconspicuous pics of Dave and Shane in there JTMX gear. And of course.... Rocky Cagnoni. yes yes yes i understand sign of the times bla bla bla. Mags are going to disappear like Rose from Unique and all us ballers will be dust.

Since we now have bloggers hoping to create the buzz of our not so imaginative and unfruitful future, I will deliver the past. The greatest time of the Industry. I understand now there is going to a rat race to make news from anyone... and i like that the more news of our great sport good, or bad is still worth reading and working with. This we don't have to compete and stab each other with. TIME TO START GIVING A SHIT

THE LAST FKT UP INTERVIEW WITH PGI

APRIL 1, 2008 PGI INTERVIEW
Hey Chris,
                  I'm doing a piece in our news
section about you picking up that fighter, so just
wanted to ask a couple questions for it:
1) How did this come about, and what inspired you to
sign a UFC fighter?
    Ever since we heard about amateur mma fighters wearing our Contract Killer board shorts for fights and us being fans of the sport, we starting seriously looking into getting into the industry. We now have a full line of mma fight shorts, T-shirts, hoodies, hats and more.
If you recall, where originally Hybrid came from MMA. My good friend of mine by the name of Wayne Chan had ventured into the sport almost 11 years ago producing Vale tudo shorts, shirts and fight accessories.. Even Bob Longs Ironmen back in the day was wearing the branded Provinggroundz.com logo at the apex of their time. From there we had got together to form what was at the time hybrid technologies paintball, making accessories and after-market hard-parts for the paintball industry.. While here in this industry, we were known for calling our sponsored players Contract Killers now producing a line of Contract killer clothing, players gear and accessories.. This has been going on for nearly 5 years since the inception of the company..


Now, the full circle begins when amateur fighters in Los Angles began wearing Contract killer clothing to the ring.. We began our quest to observe, learn and research a now booming industry. The industry is not far from how paintball is except for the internal fighting.. As most of us know as veterans of the sport, a company called I n I sports were huge in the mma and paintball mail order almost for the past 20 years! It seems evident that we come to terms with this and our brand. the loyalty and respect of both industries as far as fans have already embraced this and we are proud to be part of it. As far as Hybrid fight gear 11 years ago, the industry was not always together until now. We began working with fighter Aaron Miller from the AAO training center in Monrovia. From their we have been promoting fights one saturday night a month.
2) Are you looking to possibly pick up any more MMA
fighters?
    We get phone calls daily from fighters wanting to wear our gear and we plan on signing some major fighters in the near future. As for now we plan to do a grassroots campaign as we did in paintball.. Promoting smaller leagues, fighters and slowly gain the recognition we have so long got in paintball. We all now that paintball is hitting a all time low wether its the constant bickering of the leagues, industry and now the smart shopper who now knows the imminent technology halt.
On a side note, in our "Soldiers of Misfortune" dvd, we did a full day work out at Relsdon Gracies gym in Hawaii. I have worked out there before in the past and their more famous instructors out of that gym, Rexie, is also a player in one of the few paintballl teams from the islands, team Homegrown, KND, and team 50. Nicky Vegas from XSV is now a 3-0 Brazilian jujitsu fighter out of New York. The circle is small!
3) Do you think you'd make for a better TV show than
those Tapout guys?
    Can you imagine a reality show on us? mma fighters playing paintball and vice versa. Lets do it! As in the past, there have been known celebrity fighters that we know that are avid paintballs enthusiasts. From Tim Silvia to Dan Henderson. We as a paintball industry should look at how MMA has taken off because that was suppose to be our spot before we got into heavy politics within the industry. We should be looking at t.v. like they did. We are no less entertaining than two people beating each other up! We both bleed, we both break bones! If it wasn't for referees, both industries would be illegal! Thats when we have become extreme sports! That's good TV!Published by bill
I’m honestly somewhat shocked to be reporting this, and at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me with the current state of the United States economy being slowly flushed down the proverbial toilet.
Hybrid Paintball has published a very emotional press release, with a companion video titled “end Movie”, to their website. The tone of the release is laced with anger, hate, sorrow, remorse, and sadness at the current state of the paintball industry. The release is being interpreted by many other “sketchy” paintball news sites that Hybrid is calling it quits and disbanding.

However, it seems that Hybrid is merely stepping down its levels of production and output for the current time period while it can acquire its footing. At no point in the release does Hybrid state “we’re through”. Hybrid does state that:

Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura part 2 wec 35
Uploaded by MMAGLORY

Once more.. We are still here, not like how we do, but we are still here. Production I still have and whatever I got that you want. I have, till the industry warrants it. And if it warrants it I’ll make more.
For those who are new to the sport, this won’t affect you at all. In fact, reading over the press release won’t bring about any emotion whatsoever. However, veterans know that Hybrid has been involved in a serious struggle with both wholesalers and foreign manufacturers regarding their products. The strain of legal battles has apparently been enough to seriously impact Hybrid Paintball as a company. Veterans know exactly what Hybrid is talking about when they speak of cancer and industry monopolies.

MARCH, 2008 BY BILL MAXROF
I’m honestly somewhat shocked to be reporting this, and at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me with the current state of the United States economy being slowly flushed down the proverbial toilet.
Hybrid Paintball has published a very emotional press release, with a companion video titled “endMovie”, to their website. The tone of the release is laced with anger, hate, sorrow, remorse, and sadness at the current state of the paintball industry. The release is being interpreted by many other “sketchy” paintball news sites that Hybrid is calling it quits and disbanding.

However, it seems that Hybrid is merely stepping down its levels of production and output for the current time period while it can acquire its footing. At no point in the release does Hybrid state “we’re through”. Hybrid does state that:

Once more.. We are still here, not like how we do, but we are still here. Production I still have and whatever I got that you want. I have, till the industry warrants it. And if it warrants it I’ll make more.
For those who are new to the sport, this won’t affect you at all. In fact, reading over the press release won’t bring about any emotion whatsoever. However, veterans know that Hybrid has been involved in a serious struggle with both wholesalers and foreign manufacturers regarding their products. The strain of legal battles has apparently been enough to seriously impact Hybrid Paintball as a company. Veterans know exactly what Hybrid is talking about when they speak of cancer and industry monopolies.



MARCH 1, 2008
THE AGE OF CHANGE

To everyone in the paint-ball community,

With the current situation of an economic melt down. We are going to be in the situation of change.. Not just our company but the community of paint-ball as we know it. Most importantly, our country.

We see the dying of paint-ball dealerships almost every day. We have seen and been involved in the constant bickering of paint-ball manufacturers to not alleviate an ridiculous infrastructure of an ever changing paint-ball community.. What we see is conglomerates and umbrella companies slowly try to corner it and kill, or be killed.

Competition is progress. But when there is none, You have become a monopoly. A beast that becomes fat and become a cancer to its own body. Now we fight internally.. From disgracing the new player to never having a good time, to the recballer who gives a damn about nothing but playing and if a field is not around or he thinks that his local field only caters to other so called “important non-paying types”, he becomes renegade … lawless. To the dealer, who cannot figure out why no one comes in their store. To the dealer that decides to devalue industry product because they are now in survival mode to make ends meet. To the manufacturer who now must do the same to help with dealer margins, but bleeds its own margins and soon must be hasty in their decision making… We must stop and start reflecting!

Players will not feel this because you have the options to stay home and play online but know its always best to go play our sport like you should. Players have the luxury to love and hate brands to prove a point not knowing that this industry right this very moment, ONLY NEEDS GROWTH, the growth of competition, the growth to be better ambassadors to the new, the old, and the ones who have fallen to a disenfranchised love of the sport. The west is feeling the crunch, east will follow soon enough. Soon their will be nothing you decide what you want, that is the day the industry as a whole may be destroyed.

We have stepped sideways because first off, we can, and secondly, the consumer, the dealer are simply not buying how they use too. To the consumer that can afford to pay in other industries good money, but is educated to go cheap in paint-ball. If you cant afford it, you just cant afford it. HOWEVER, what must be done is to let new people embrace our sport so we can grow. To also provide a service to the community that we are legit. When we do, fields are easily accessible.

Now working on other industry where competition is fierce, they still maintain order, respect, right to fight, but keep the margins in check so its industry will not implode. Buyers still buy. No matter what. You can see it by their own conventions…

At this time I say we need a united front, a governing body, with two common goals; to thrive in our great industry, and to keep the industry from failing. We so love this sport? Then each player has a responsibility to improve it.

History is repeating-itself and the more you see it then you begin to believe that the harvest did not justify to reseed because of a long winter. And we need to hold on to the fabric that made us great. to conserve, to demand, to supply must all come into play.

We are a luxury sport, but when dad loses a job, or your parents lose their homes, who plays? who wins? most importantly, who survives? furthermore, who controls?

Once more.. We are still here, not like how we do, but we are still here. Production I still have and whatever I got that you want. I have, till the industry warrants it. And if it warrants it I’ll make more. And when I can get up to lick my wounds, heal, and get up off my feet and feel like I need to do something, I’m coming after you.. To the loyalists: I got a lot more in the war-chest that these fools haven’t thought of yet! Just wait and see.. To my killers.. I will make things right.

myspace.com/contractkillermma
contractkillerclothing.com

Chris Corcino, John Marques- Hybrid tech LLc (the only Hybrid), Contract Killer clothing Co.(The Last of Our Kind)